A couple of questions about refueling trains (2024)

So I am to the point now where I have probably 50 or 60 trains running around. Most go from one station to pick something up and deliver it to another station, and then back to the load station. For fueling, I had small fuel stations at each station, which is now starting to become inconvenient.

I have now made a fairly large fuel making station which creates about 1000 rocket fuel per minute, all from coal. Right now, I have set it up so each train would pick up its product, deliver it, and then run to top off fuel at the fuel station, then back to its schedule. This doesn't seem efficient. So, my first question is. I typically use 2-6 trains. How long could a train this big go until it needs refueling if it is full at first with rocket fuel? Also, and more importantly, is there an easy way to set up so that my trains go about their pick up and deliver schedule, and only make a run to the fuel station when they are low on fuel?

Thanks,
Rylant

There's no way to make trains go to a fuel station when they get low on fuel, unfortunately. It's been suggested many times before.

This was a list of similar topics. now visible here.

How 'centralized' is your rail network? That is to say: do most of your trains go to one general area? Or are things more 'distributed', with trains running between a bunch of different factory blocks?

If it is fairly centralized, you can probably handle most refueling needs at whatever location most of your trains go to (e.g. classic example of this case is a central main base fed via trains by numerous mining outposts; refueling this setup is best done with fuel being distributed locally at your main base to every unload station, so that every train is 'topped off' on fuel every time it comes to unload at your main base).

If it is decentralized, then you need some means of distributing fuel to the various outposts where it is needed. A clever way of achieving this, is to have each of your trains have an extra wagon, which exists solely to carry (Rocket) fuel. The idea is to use your extant rail network to also distribute your fuel for you. At each station, the the fuel wagon is unloaded and routed to fueling the other stops that service the same factory block. The optimal way to do this is to start from your Rocket fuel production site and work backwards through your rail network, modifying existing trains to also carry fuel as need until every train visits an outpost that is being served fuel by one of its trains (if you have more than one to choose from, always choose the one that will run the most often to ensure that fuel won't ever run out provided your production is keeping up). The main downside to this approach is that it means buffering a lot of fuel if you want to ensure that the system can handle a temporary shortage anywhere in the network.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I see that there are a couple of mods which add fueling stations and make it so the train can add one of them when it is low in fuel, which will allow it to stop at the refuel depot. Has anybody tried any of these? I may try them tonight.

Rylant

Added to Control Train Pathfinder (Passthru stations, Add Penalty, Control Refueling)

Prior to LTN I've made sure every train has at least one station providing fuel in its schedule.

The ore trains bring ore to the smelters, which naturally have fuel (prior to electrical furnaces late in the game). So all the smelters also refuel the ore trains. Similar all the trains delivering plates from the smelter also get fuel at the smelter. That's probably the biggest chunk of trains already covered.

For ther rest there are 3 options:

1) the train stop is near somewhere that already has fuel so just pull over a belt full or fuel and refuel the train
2) add a train stop "Fuel out" that is only enabled when the buffer chests are < 100. From the buffer chest refuel the regular train.
Note: Have one train parked at "Fuel in" waiting for inventory full and go to "Fuel out" waiting for inventory empty or inactivity. Refuel at "Fuel in". The train will only deliver fuel when any of the "Fuel out" stations runs low. One train is enough for hundreds of stations.
3) add a "Refuel" stop to the trains schedule. Make sure the refule stop(s) have plenty of waiting bays and enough throuput. You don't want this to be your bottleneck. Having multiple stations at different places so trains don't all need to cross some central nexus is a good idea. But you want the "Refuel" stop(s) to be somewhat central to all the trains that go there.

Usualy I use 1 or 2. But if you have satelite factories, e.g. an off site science production, then putting an extra "Refuel" stop at the entry/exit of the satelite factory is a good plan. The trains will pass there anyway and the little stop to add 3 rocket fuels takes little time.